Monthly Archives: November 2013

November 11, 2013 · 10:11 am

Veteran’s Day And Business

Often when a national holiday approaches I’ll go back over my posts to see what I’ve written about the day in the past.  I’ve written about Veteran’s Day, which we celebrate today, here, here, and here.

Joseph Ambrose, an 86-year-old World War I vet...

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Feel free to go back and read them but I noticed a common theme that I want to repeat and  pretty big omission that I want to correct.

In each of those posts I thank our men and women who served to protect and defend this country.  I do again.  “My war” would have been Vietnam just as my Dad’s was WWII.  He served when his time came because he was needed; I didn’t since the war was winding down and the draft was ending.  Putting the politics aside is almost impossible when discussing the differences between those two conflicts but the service given by those who went is indistinguishable.

I also draw an inelegant analogy between those folks selfless service to us and how businesses ought to be dedicated to serving their customers.  I also touch upon the teamwork needed to succeed.  A long time ago Fast Company published an article which cited an interesting study:

After World War II, the US military commissioned S.L.A. Marshall, a Harvard historian, to do a remarkable study. The question he was asked to research was, literally, why are men willing to die in war? Marshall was allowed to advance and test a variety of explanations. Patriotism – people would die for their country. Or family – men would fight and die to protect their wives and children. The answer that finally emerged was small-group integrity. In a group of people where each is truly committed to the others, no one will be the first to run. So they all stand and fight together.

You know I’m a big proponent of teamwork and believe it’s critical to business success.  The article goes on to talk about managerial courage and how it’s tested and that brings up the omission I want to correct.  Too many of us talk about business as war from time to time, just as we do comparing sports to combat.  We need to stop that.  I used to say that the best part of what I did was that when I screwed up nobody died.  Protecting one’s country for a lousy salary and risking a life can in no way be compared to playing a game for a lot of money or running a business for an obscene amount.

So to my Dad, my other family members, schoolmates, and the millions who stepped forward when their time came to serve I say thank you.  We voted last week – you made that possible.  Think about that as you conduct your business the rest of this week and you serve customers. clients, and commercial causes, hopefully as well as the Vets served us.

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November 8, 2013 · 9:07 am

Executing The Staff

Foodie Friday, and although the title of today’s rant sounds as if it involves improving the bottom line by drastically reducing overhead, nothing could be further from the truth.  Since we’re food-related today, the topic is how restaurants that do daily deals manage to do them well.  If you’re like me you’ve probably had the experience of buying a deal from GroupOn, Living Social, or even Amazon and having a so-so experience.  That might be due to the fact that a great number of restaurants that do these deals regret having done so (about half of them, depending on whose research you believe).  So why do they seem so popular?

Image representing LivingSocial as depicted in...

via CrunchBase

The ability of daily deals to generate new customers remains the primary reason for featuring a daily deal for a majority (53%) of restaurateurs that use them.  Bringing in new customers is one thing; getting them to return is another.  In addition, if all the deal does is bring in existing customers who dine at a discount, the promotion has done very little to grow the business.

So what makes some restaurant deals work while others fail?  GroupOn commissioned a study on that and found:

unsuccessful daily deals promoters struggle with many of these same goals – especially the goal of getting customers to return. The key to using daily deals effectively seems to lie in implementing the right steps before, during, and after to better assure success. To be successful with daily deals, companies need to first-and-foremost prepare their staff for the promotion. This one factor, alone, is the strongest differentiator between successful and unsuccessful daily deals users.

In other words, the staff needs to execute, and what that means is instructive for any type of business.  After all, many of the places using these deals are not busy enough. What business ever thinks it is?  But that leads to chronic understaffing.  For these restaurants making sure that they have enough staff to serve the new customers during the deal is critical.   I mean, would you go back to a crowded place where you couldn’t get a server’s attention?

It’s important as well to have a staff meeting to explain the promotion and set objectives for the deal campaign.  Again, better communication with the team means everyone is aware of the goals.  In addition, it’s a chance to remind them that many of the customers will be visiting the restaurant for the first time and to make a great first impression to keep customers coming back.  They also need training on the mechanics of the deal – how to enter codes, how to track spending, etc.  For the deals to work well, the customer needs to spend beyond what they get in the deal – buying wine that’s not included or maybe a dessert.  Training the staff to upsell those thing s can make a big difference in the margin these deals provide.

All of those things remind us that being successful is a team effort and that an informed team that understands what you’re doing, why you’re doing it, and how success can be determined increases the likelihood that they will execute well.  Deal?

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November 7, 2013 · 11:30 am

Oh, The Places You’ll Go

Anyone who thinks Dr. Seuss was writing children’s books didn’t read them very carefully.

Cover of "Oh, the Places You'll Go!"

I was reminded of that a couple of times recently when the same book – Oh The Places You’ll Go – came up.  It was the last book of his that was published before he died in 1990 and it’s a favorite of mine.  I thought I’d point out a few of the business lessons the good doctor teaches us in that slim but important volume.

First, the importance of self-determination:

You have brains in your head.
You have feet in your shoes
You can steer yourself
any direction you choose.

Too often, we think of ourselves and/or our businesses as just pawns in some game being played out by an unseen hand (to use an economic term).  While packing up and leaving a job or changing the fundamental nature of a business is never a decision taken lightly, it’s an equally bad notion to be miserable or in a business that’s doomed to fail.

Next, he reminds us of the importance of setting priorities in both business and life as well as the importance of being a good person:

So be sure when you step.
Step with care and great tact
and remember that Life’s
a Great Balancing Act.

Twenty words that say hundreds!  Next, one thing the book cautions against is delusional thinking:

On and on you will hike
and I know you’ll hike far
and face up to your problems
whatever they are.

That’s one of the more important business points that is most widely ignored.  How often does a staff listen to a boss’s motivational speech about how well everything is going and snicker because they know the reality looks nothing like what he’s saying?  How many executives interpret numbers in ways that always make them seem better than they really are?

Finally, another point I see all the time – negotiating against ourselves:

I’m afraid that some times
you’ll play lonely games too.
Games you can’t win
’cause you’ll play against you.

It’s a no-win game and we often talk ourselves out of proposing new ideas or better business terms because we tell ourselves “that will never work.”  It might not, but what ever it is definitely won’t happen if you talk yourself out of trying.

If you have a copy of the book in the house, the 5 minutes it would take to read it again would be time well spent.  Even better – if you have an older child, do something you haven’t done with them probably since they were 5 or 6 – read it to them.  After all, it’s not a book for children! Then let us know what they said.

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